Junior doctors at KMC to go on strike

About 800 junior doctors of the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital here will go on an indefinite strike from Tuesday in protest against the non-payment of stipend and salary for December.

V. Sajinlal, secretary, Post Graduate Association and Akshay, president, House Surgeons Association of the medical college in a joint press statement on Monday said that the junior doctors had planned the indefinite strike as they had no other option. The office-bearers had organised a token strike on January 14 and they had also held several rounds of discussion with the authorities, but to no avail, they said.

However, the casualty wing, labour room and ICU have been exempted from the strike in the first phase. The strike by 800 junior doctors will hit the functioning of the medical college, they said.

The junior doctors had been forced to protest earlier following the frequent delay in the payment of stipend. The authorities still seemed not to bother to the demands of the doctors who reside on the campus and work in shifts round-the-clock, they added.